For Game 1, battle plan and my army construction see viewtopic.php?p=50882#50882 for a breakdown of my Moorish army.
It was high noon as the final draw was called. I faced Ray Duggins’ Santa Hermandad Nueva Castilian. We were in good positions on the score board so a strong win would give either of us a finishing position around 5th or 6th. The tension was running high, and male egos were at stake. We both were going for the kill.
Ray’s army was (from memory):
1 FC
2 TCs
3 x 4 LH Jinetes – prot, ave, javelins
2 x 4 MF crossbows prot, ave, crossbow
8 HF Hermandad prot, ave, defensive spearmen
8 HF Hermandad arm, ave offensive spearmen
12 HF Hermandad prot, ave, pikemen
8 HF Swiss prot, sup, pikemen
8 MF Almughavars, prot, ave, impact foot
2 x 4 MAA heavily armoured knights, mighty lance & sharp sword.
12 units. The jinetes were a worry for me, being protected they would outclass my Moorish LH in melee.
The lines were drawn in the sand and positions taken:
The fight was a disaster for me, and it looked like I was heading for Boot Hill. Ray skilfully used a combination of crossbows and jinetes to outmanoeuvre and box in my LH on the right wing. I should have accepted the destruction of 1 pinned unit and withdrawn the rest. But I got over-greedy and, looking for a quick result, attacked the jinetes. The result was a complete failure and the Moorish LH high-tailed it out of there and off the table.
4 units lost by me – 8 attrition points down – with a break point of 16 Ray was half way there in the first few moves. There was no cavalry to come to my rescue – it had all run away. So it was down to the infantry!
Having made enchiladas of my LH, the focus now shifted across to the other wing (see photo below). I had 16 bases of LF javelinmen harassing a block of Swiss pike with javelins, to no effect. The Swiss completely ignored the lights and marched where they wished. Eventually some jinetes rode up and my light foot skedaddledfor cover.
The MF almughavers closed with my Spanish and a long brawl ensued. We both pushed generals into the fight but the combat was deadlocked. Eventually some Fakes came up in support, to be countered by some particularly nasty armoured spearmen. Eventually these Fakes were routed; I didn’t disrupt the spearmen at impact so consequently I was on a double minus POA in melee.
Another unit lost, 10 AP’s down and nothing to show for it.
But in the centre…
At the same time the MF almughavars also failed and run like dogs, and the unit of really nasty armoured spearmen ran into my other elephant unit during their pursuit and were also routed in short order.
But, a showdown was about to take place…
The Fakes wouldn’t die – and the unit lurking in the left hand edge of the picture moved around to flank the MAA, who were eventually charged frontally and in the flank and routed.
We now move to the final set piece:
As time was called, both armies were teetering on destruction – one more unit loss on either side would cause that army to rout. It was a draw, both armies were exhausted.
It was a rip-roaring game, which went from near certain destruction of the Moorish army to the Castilians close to breaking. And Ray was a great opponent to play against.
Post competition analysis
In the end the Moors ended up 15th out of 41, slightly over one third of the way down. Not too bad for an army rated as the worst in the RoR book. It was a great comp and all the games were hugely enjoyable. The Moorish/Numidians were much more fun to play than I expected, and I was glad I took them. I didn’t feel the army was a bad army, but it does take patience to play. You really want at least 3.5hrs of game time, ideally more, to force a result.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to all my opponents who, without exception, played as gentlemen. The idea for the historical quotes comes from an old Slingshot article by Richard Bodley Scott, coincidentally reporting on Numidians at a comp using DBM.
And thanks to the organisers for a great weekend.
